Schooldays in 1959/60
Just a few notes about schooldays in 1959/60. Our two set books for an external exam in English literature were John Buchan’s The 39 Steps and J Meade Faulkner’s Moonfleet. I recall that had our class gone to grammar school we would have been obliged to read Shakespeare and that would have been a burden for me, as a fourteen year old coming on to fifteen. I have since begun to appreciate his exquisite language. Moonfleet was an exciting tale about smugglers and the Mohune family – floating coffins – Blackbeard etc. – readable by any one of twelve years and more! Our teacher was Mr Hewitson [I keep spelling his name that way but it might be Hewison]. I liked him even though at one point he compared me to Mrs Malaprop. He felt that I would do well in English because he considered that I had a fairly good vocabulary, even though, just occasionally, my choice of words was amusing and absolutely incorrect! So what has changed? Mr Barlow tried to get me a job with the Northern Echo but that did not materialize - so I went to study at Durham Technical College instead.
Robert Moore was in our class at Ushaw Moor and he later said that he received more education that year than ever before. He wasn’t a bad footballer; he was of a decent height but with a slightly built frame. I think Bob liked a cigarette and that might be the reason why he seemed to perform a little better in the first half of a game!
Edith Smith and her friend Pauline were very bright and chatty in class, as well as members of the very successful school netball team; they went on to achieve quite a lot in grown up land as did Margaret Wilkinson, who currently lives in a different part of the country.
I wonder how many ‘silver surfers’ are taking up the offer of learning computer skills [see current reference to the offer on site]. It might result in a few more contributors.
Well that has filled a ten minute block of time and it’s time to close. I do not really have much more original material for the site but fortunately it looks as if Geoff Turner is preparing a few articles which will begin to come on stream fairly soon. If that is the case I will read them with great interest.
Best wishes.
W Bell
